Regulators get an earful over planned gas pipeline

DUNNELLON — The last time an energy company installed its lines across Frank Atkins' family's property, grave markers in a family-owned cemetery were displaced.

The 85-year-old said that after Florida Power Corp. came through in the 1960s, he could not find the burial plot holding his mother, who died giving birth to him.

Now that a natural gas pipeline is slated to pass through his Citrus County land, Atkins said he's concerned the one-acre cemetery, where more family members are buried, might be affected again.

"I know there are other ways they can go without coming through there, because I've been there all my life," Atkins told federal energy regulators Wednesday night.

"I don't want that through there. Enough's in there by having the electrical line, and now they coming with a gas line. Our property won't be no value at all."

Atkins was one of about two dozen people on Wednesday who urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, to reject the proposed route for the 36-inch-wide pipeline planned by Sabal Trail Transmission LLC.

The firm, a joint venture of Juno Beach-based Next Era Energy Corp., which owns Florida Power & Light, the state's largest electrical utility, and Spectra Energy in Houston, plans to build about 26 miles of pipeline through western Marion County, near Dunnellon.

Overall, the project is expected to cover about 460 miles, capable of delivering up to 1.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day from central Alabama to FPL's plant in South Florida.

To the west of Marion, some people, like Atkins, would witness construction of Sabal Trail's 24-inch-wide, 24-mile-long offshoot, intended to carry fuel to a new Duke Energy power plant in Citrus that's expected to be operating by 2018.

Roughly 150 people turned out Wednesday to learn more about the project at a meeting hosted by the FERC team.

Project manager John Peconom stressed to the group gathered at the Rainbow Springs Golf & Country Club that it was still very early in the process, and that no decisions had been made. Sabal Trail, in fact, is not expected to submit its formal application until this fall, he noted.

Peconom emphasized that he could answer few questions, other than those about the approval process.

The purpose of the session, he said, was to gather input from local residents and work with other federal agencies and the company to address them.

The crowd gave Peconom's team an earful.

Accidents, environmental wreckage, the potential of a ruined water supply, global warming and contributing to hydraulic fracturing dominated the list of concerns expressed by pipeline opponents.

For example, Harry Patterson, treasurer of the Green Party in Florida, called the continued burning of fossil fuels "caveman technology in the digital age."

"In view of the looming climatic catastrophe we're facing, the proposed pipeline isn't just a move in the wrong direction. It's running at full speed in the wrong direction," he said.

"The environment in this area — the springs, the state park, the Withlacoochee River, Lake Rosseau — this is lifeblood of our town," said Gordon Hart."It's our economic lifeblood," Hart continued. "It's where we get our water. It really is what this whole community is all about. And if this pipeline goes through here, and the destruction is created, you can't get it back. Once it's broken, it's broken."

Some tried to reinforce the point by calling attention to Spectra Energy's safety record, and the fact that the company's recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that the company lacked enough insurance to cover a disaster.

Another foe, Tamara Robbins, noted that maps of the proposed route did not delineate bodies of water or waterways.

"Your experts should have already studied the geology of Florida," she said. "You should know about the land of a thousand springs. And if you did, I can't imagine you not recommending denial to the commission on a project that is not needed."

Other critics drew applause by questioning whether property for the pipeline would be taken under eminent domain, only to have the product shooting through Sabal Trail's pipes to be sold overseas.

Peconom did little to assuage the fears when he confirmed, in response to critics' questions, his agency track record on such projects.

The commission itself had rejected few projects, he said, and FERC staff had never recommended denial of one.

Instead, he noted, the staff's role was to suggest ways pipelines could be routed to address concerns such as those raised Wednesday night.

Nor did it help influence opponents when he acknowledged that the FERC is funded by fees paid by the companies it regulates.

Yet a small contingent defended the agency and the project.

David Carleton, a retired power plant worker who said he had worked with the FERC, argued that the agency was not an industry "lapdog." The government would hold Sabal Trail accountable, he maintained.

Jim Bailey, a member of Marion County's planning commission, supported the project, saying the critics' "preconceived notions" would eventually be put to rest.

Dunnellon resident Butch Verrando agreed. "This project will provide jobs and energy to Marion County," he told the regulators. "God bless you because you have to listen to an awful lot of whining."

Peconom said all the comments were welcome and would contribute to the FERC's understanding.